'$1bn ketamine bust' turns out to be cleaning agent

[OniriA]

Thailand's claim to have seized almost $1bn worth of the drug ketamine has turned out to be a "misunderstanding", its justice minister has said.

 

Instead, lab tests found the substance was trisodium phosphate - a compound commonly used as a cleaning agent.

Somsak Thepsuthin said a "technical error" in field testing had led to the initial false claim.

 

 

Officials had seized the substance earlier this month, and declared it to be Thailand's largest ketamine seizure.

Ketamine is widely used as an anaesthetic, but due to its

hallucinogenic effects is also thought of as a "party drug". It can cause serious harm to the body and be fatal if used this way.

 

 

Trisodium phosphate, a white powdered substance, can be used in stain remover, or even as a food additive.

 

 

Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-55067876

 

 

[DooM Bear]

Bahahahahahahahaha XD

 

The poor customs agent that found that “bust” is never gonna live that down at work XD

 

I would love to know what when wrong or what reagent kit they are using for the initial testing as that is quite the error :-P

 

Just did some quick wiking and I’m gonna guess it was probably a Mandelin reagent kit as old Wikipedia says ketamine shows up as a “Deep reddish orange” but table salt (Sodium Chloride) shows up as “Strong orange” so maybe TSP gives a similar result?

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandelin_reagent

[j4rio]

Legalise recreational ketamine! #endwarondrugs

[OniriA]

1 hour ago, j4rio said:

Legalise recreational ketamine! #endwarondrugs

 

And party like it's 1998?

 

 

[FractalBeast]

Slowly, the drugs are winning the war on drugs, and I'm completely okay with that.

 

Fucking about time we got some fucking biochemical freedom up in here.

[Jello]

I'd love to know how much ketamine or other narcotics slipped through because they were pre-occupied with this diversion shipment.  

[Murdoch]

Bahahah oh dear.

[xvertigox]

Field tests are notoriously inaccurate and should obviously never be used to make any such claims. I haven't looked into the specifics of field tests but do they use more that one reagent? If it's just Marquis, for example, there'll be a huge amount of false results (optiates showing as MDxx for example).